Head to head

H-IIA vs Vulcan VC6L

Two vehicles in the same payload class. Every figure below comes from the same two sources for both rockets, and a row appears only when both publish the input.

Payload to low Earth orbit

Relative

H-IIA: 10,000 kg

Vulcan VC6L: 27,200 kg

Side by side

8 comparable figures

The highlighted value wins the row. Rows where neither direction is better, like length or stage count, highlight nothing.

Metric	H-IIA	Vulcan VC6L
Flights flown	50	0
Payload to LEO (kg)	10,000	27,200
Payload to GTO (kg)	4,100	15,300
Liftoff thrust (kN)	2,260	18,110
Length (m)	53	67.4
Diameter (m)	4	5.4
Launch mass (t)	285	877
Stages	2	2

H-IIA

Flight record

98% success rate49 of 50 flown · 1 failed

2001peak 2017 · 6 flights2025

Maiden flight 2001-08-29. Retired.

Vulcan VC6L

Flight record

Maiden flight not recorded. Still flying.

H-IIA is built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan (company profile on Space Index).Vulcan VC6L is built by United Launch Alliance of the United States (company profile on Space Index).

Full specifications and the complete launch history for each: H-IIA · Vulcan VC6L.

Specifications from Launch Library 2 by The Space Devs, launch records from Space Index. Derived figures are computed here; see sources and method.